Ninja Niblets
by ShinyShiny9
Summary: One-shots filling in the blanks between episodes of Season 4. Come for the humor, stay for the educational value - we're gonna learn how to scobble a ferry, the least practical way to ditch incriminating evidence, jungle survival, jailhouse poker, and how to train your (elemental) dragon!
1. Ep 35-36: Being Good at What You Do

**Hi all! Are we having fun with Season 4 yet? **

**Now that the season's airing in the US, I thought I'd go ahead with this! There's always a few little oddities here and there, so I thought I'd whip together some extra snippets about what goes on in between the episodes. Major spoilers, obviously! I'm mainly aiming for humor, but I suspect it might get more intense as the episodes themselves do. **

**This one takes place between Episode 35 (The Invitation) and 36 (Only One Can Remain). **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago.**

* * *

As the mysterious ferry churned its way closer to Chen's Island, the crowd of passengers at the bow railing grew. Waves from the ship's wake and rear paddle began to slap against the dockside, sending up sprays of seafoam, while the heavy craft rumbled its engines, slowing down for the approach to the dock.

There was some puzzlement among the invitees when the ferry drew to a _complete_ halt a good twenty meters away from the dockside, still rumbling and frothing water every which way. What was the holdup?

Garmadon kept his eyes mistrustfully on the island he'd sworn never to return to, but with his ears he sifted through the growing puzzled murmur of the group until he latched onto a familiar voice. Clouse was arguing with one of the tattooed crewmen, his condescending voice raised only ever so slightly in annoyance.

"This ship transports trucks full of noodles on a daily basis. Surely the docking procedure must be well-ingrained by now?"

"Don't look at _me,_" said the crewman sullenly. "I'm just wunna the dockhands. Most of us are, ya know? We load, we unload, we drive the trucks and handle security. We don't steer this tub, and we sure don't know how to fix it."

"How did something manage to malfunction during a trip this short? Did you not make sure the ship was in working condition before we started?"

"Sure, we checked," grumbled the crewman. "We usually have an automatic docking system that lands us just fine, but it got totaled when those two weirdos were having a brawl and knocked in the roof."

By now the ninja were surreptitiously listening too; Jay smirked and elbowed Kai, earning an eloquent eyeroll in response.

"Then dock the ship manually," said Clouse impatiently. "The pilot cannot be that inept."

"Can't do that either. We'd need the hand rudder. It was fine when we started, but now the handle's broken clean off."

From his left Garmadon heard Cole gulp suddenly, followed by Lloyd hissing, "I _told_ you that thing was important!"

"I barely even touched it!" Cole snapped back under his breath. "The wood must've been rotten—it would've broken when they tried to use it anyway!"

"Oh sure," cut in Jay, "because they'd _definitely_—" Garmadon tuned the squabble out and turned his attention back to Clouse's conversation.

"—still have to dock this ship. Get someone to fix the rudder." Chen's right-hand man was starting to sound distinctly peeved.

"I'm telling ya, we _can't_," retorted the crewman. "We almost never used the blasted rudder, so only Mujo knows how to fix it."

"And where is this Mujo?" asked Clouse dangerously. "Did he not show up for this vitally important trip?"

" . . . That was the guy Garmadon kicked off the boat."

A moment of silence. At length Clouse gave a sharp breath of frustration.

"We shall have to pull level with the shoreline and use a gangplank, then. This was _not_ the landing ceremony Master Chen had in mind. He will hear about this!"

"Seriously, don't look at me," muttered the crewman. "I've been runnin' this circuit for three years and haven't seen as many accidents as this one trip. Give me noodle trucks any day!"

As Clouse stalked off to make arrangements, the small party by the railing exchanged awkward glances, realizing they had half-crippled the entire ferry without even trying.

"Uh . . . how long have we been on this ship again?" asked Lloyd at last.

"Less than an hour."

". . . Master Chen doesn't stand a chance."

* * *

**A/N: **Bit of background: you know how in later episodes it turns out the ferry normally transports noodle trucks to Chen's Island? Look at the scene in Episode 36 where they're getting off the ferry. There's a flimsy gangplank set up on top of a parapet so that you have to jump down to get to solid ground. They can _not_ be loading trucks full of cargo every night using a contraption like _that,_ so I took the liberty of explaining why they weren't using a proper ferry ramp. Yes, you five back there. It's _your_ fault. I hope you're pleased with yourselves. :P


	2. Ep 36-37: It's Never That Easy

Getting pursued through tunnels by an enormous angry snake is always an energizing experience. For the first minute or two after crashing safely back into Kai's room, the ninja just caught their breaths and congratulated themselves on still being alive and presumably undetected. As the rush gradually wore off, though, they started to drop back into reality.

"I don't know about you guys," said Jay, scraping melted chocolate from his chin, "but I don't think I'm going to be sleeping much tonight."

"Me neither," sighed Lloyd. "But we have to at least try—who knows what Master Chen has planned for tomorrow! We can't risk failing the tournament just because we didn't get enough rest."

Jay pointed at him silently, then turned to Kai.

"Is this the same person as the kid who nearly tore the Bounty apart with his 'war on bedtime'?"

"Can't be. Somebody's slipped us a dud Lloyd," said Kai grimly.

"Ha, guys. Ha, ha. That was _then_."

"Uh, you guys?" interrupted Cole suddenly. "What do we do about these suits? . . ."

There was a moment of silence as they all realized they were still wearing the strangely-patterned overalls they had swiped from a supply closet in the underground tunnels, and that the snakeskull helmets were scattered all over the room too.

"Ohmigosh!" Jay's eyes grew wide. "They're gonna go looking for these suits! We're marked men!"

"Relax," scoffed Kai, starting to peel the overalls off from over his regular ninja suit. "We just stuff them in a bag and throw them in the trash, and they'll never know who was wearing them."

"This is _Chen_ we're talking about! The guy has a gigantic starving snake in the basement, who knows what else he could have? He could have bloodhounds! Or a forensics lab!"

"Forensics lab?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you watch any TV?" asked Jay impatiently. "They can find hairs or dead skin cells—"

"What? Ew!"

"—This is not the time to freak out about skin cells! We are about to get _busted!_" shouted Jay.

"Guys, guys, relax," broke in Lloyd, while Cole gingerly tested the ear Jay had been shouting nearest to. "I don't think we have to worry about a forensics lab, but Jay's right—we have to get rid of these suits pretty well so they can't get us caught."

"Hey, no problem," shrugged Kai, tossing a small fireball up from one hand. "Give 'em over here."

The suits turned out to be flame-retardant. They didn't burn, but they did melt into a gooey mess and send up spectacular plumes of acrid black smoke.

"This place—" Lloyd coughed and swiped at his stinging eyes "—had better not have smoke alarms!"

"It's a Fire suite. Of course it doesn't have smoke alarms!" Kai paused. "Not sure about the hallway, though."

"Yyyyyyeah, we need a new plan," said Cole, picking up one of the snakeskull helmets. "These aren't going to burn either."

"We could stash them in my closet . . . "

"Way too obvious. Maybe we could bury them?" suggested Lloyd, pushing open the balcony doors before they all suffocated.

"We don't have any shovels, and people would get suspicious if they found the ground was dug up. What if we wrapped them in a blanket and tied them up in a tree?"

"Still too easy to find. Maybe we could chuck them down one of Chen's trapdoors?"

"Or hide them under a rock?"

"What if we fed them to that giant snake?"

"We need a ray gun," said Jay out of nowhere. He got some blank looks. "One of those space blasters, remember? Then we could just zap these things to atoms. Pow! and it's over."

More blank looks. At last Lloyd shook his head and waved a hand wearily.

"How about we just toss them into the harbor?"

It was a more involved process. First Jay weaseled his way into the palace's laundry room and swiped a stack of freshly-washed sheets. Then they scraped the still-smoldering remains of the suits from Kai's floor and wrapped that and the helmets up in one of the sheets. Then they tied the other sheets together into a rope, parkoured their way onto the palace's outer wall, and let the rope down on the other side.

"This is technically littering, you know," fretted Jay, starting to slide his way down the rope.

"Not much choice in the matter," Cole whispered back, following him. Jay looked up, startled.

"No, wait! Not two at a—"

The blanket rope snapped, and Jay and Cole made the rest of the descent very rapidly, ending with an "oof!" at the base of the wall.

"Shhhhh!" hissed Lloyd. He and Kai grabbed a ninja each and dragged them back against the wall. For a few minutes they pressed their backs against the stone, holding their breaths. No sound came from above, no calls or even footsteps—thankfully they seemed to have gone undetected. Praying that no guards were in sight on the walltops, they shot down to the waterside, dragging the bundle of costumes with them.

"When'd this thing get so heavy?" grumbled Kai.

"Shhhhhh!" hissed Lloyd. "They might still be able to hear us!"

Grasping the bundle by two edges, they swung it back and forth a few times and hurled it as far as they could over the water. It landed with a hearty splash and disappeared.

"Phew," said Cole, dusting off his hands. "Glad that's over wi—"

"Guys," said Lloyd, pointing. The bundle had bobbed back up to the surface. They waited for it to take on water, but it didn't. Jay threw up his hands.

"Oh, now this is just _perfect!_"

"Shhhhh!" warned Lloyd.

There was some muffled squabbling and playing of Rock-Paper-Clamp. At last it fell to Kai to swim out and fetch the bundle back so they could stuff rocks in it. There had definitely been situations historically that he had been more pleased about. After they had scrounged up some rocks and added them to the bundle, Cole and Lloyd tried to throw it into the harbor.

In hindsight, swinging the bundle first may have been a mistake, because it sent them off-balance and pulled them into the water along with it. Jay muffled his laughter and said something snarky as he reached down to help them out, so a miffed Cole pulled him in as well.

In the end, it was a heck of a lot of trouble just to dispose of four incriminating outfits. When the four dripping ninja finally snuck their way back to the palace wall, they realized they didn't have a way to get up anymore—the rope was broken and the outside of the wall, obviously, wasn't parkour-friendly.

"I've just about had it," gritted Cole, as the others attempted to stack on his shoulders.

"Shhhhhh!" hissed Lloyd from the top.

At last they stumbled back into the compound and went to their rooms for what felt like only twenty minutes of sleep. They were not what you could call bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning. At breakfast, Garmadon eyed first Jay, who was at a fairly severe risk of drowning in his oatmeal, then Cole, who was winding up to sock Kai for falling asleep on his shoulder. Kai woke up with an "ow!", and Lloyd (seemingly out of reflex) jerked into alertness and hissed "Shhhhhhh!" before realizing they were in the dining hall and smacking his forehead.

"Up all night?" Garmadon asked at last.

"Yeah, pretty much." Lloyd rubbed his face tiredly.

"Any particular reason?"

"'Cos flame-retardant fabric sucks," offered Cole.

"And we didn't have space blasters," added Jay drowsily.

"Yeah . . . " Lloyd tried to swallow a yawn. "Should definitely have kept some of those space blasters . . . "

Garmadon regarded the woozy ninjas for a moment and decided he probably didn't want to know. Sighing, he went back to his breakfast. He wasn't even dealing with the full complement of five like his brother used to, but he was already beginning to see why Wu (despite being the younger brother) had much whiter hair.


	3. Ep 37-38: Coals of Fire

**Woohoo! Spring is on its way! **

**You can tell because the sap's started running. **

**Seriously, this one's almost all mush. Mush and sap all over the place, bleh. Disgraceful. And boy it was a killer to write . . . I'm not good at this kinda stuff. But it finally worked out in a way I was reasonably happy with, so here we go!**

* * *

The end of the match seemed almost anticlimatic. The floor dropped out, and Cole was gone. Jay picked his way across the few remaining tiles in the battle arena, the Jade Blade still in his hand and a somewhat pained smile on his face. He was uncharacteristically quiet the rest of the afternoon.

After dinner, the others decided they would try climbing the mountain in the center of the island, thinking that a higher perspective might reveal some clues about Zane's location. Since climbing the mountain was not forbidden,, it wasn't likely to be any use, but they were strapped for ideas and wanted to feel like they were doing _something_. Jay was ambivalent about joining, but in the end he came along.

"You know, I think there's snow at the top," said Lloyd as they started out. "Too bad we didn't bring skis."

Kai shrugged, shifting the bulky backpack he was wearing. It clanked slightly.

"That's a lot of weight to be carrying on a simple trip up and down," remarked Garmadon. "What have you got in there?"

"Lunch . . . " said Kai, then muttered something unintelligible.

"Better hope there aren't any Yeti up here, or with a load like that _you'll_ be lunch," grinned Lloyd.

"I'm not worried about Yeti. They won't bother us," said Kai, patting Jay on the shoulder. Lloyd stifled a laugh.

"I could be wrong, Jay, but I think you've just been insulted."

"Huh?" Jay snapped out of his thoughts and blinked at the others. He clearly hadn't been listening to the conversation.

"What's up?" asked Kai.

"Nothin', just wondering about the next challenge and stuff," said Jay lightly. Kai and Lloyd exchanged glances and looked like they'd like to keep asking, but at that point the climb became more arduous and they could only fit two abreast. Jay fell back and paired with Garmadon, letting the other two go ahead. As night fell and they grappled their way up the rough crags and ledges, he continued to climb in silence. Garmadon didn't pressure him, having some idea of how topics like this worked.

Sure enough, when they got past a particularly difficult segment of the climb and Kai and Lloyd were arguing about how high up they were by now, Jay glanced back at the way they had just come and half-smiled ruefully.

"Cole would've loved that. He was always into mountain climbing," he ventured.

"I did hear he likes it," agreed Garmadon, tactful.

Only a few minutes more of silence, and Jay was again driven to speak.

"I—" he glanced up to see if the others were within earshot, then looked down at his hands. "I feel kinda lousy about it."

"The battle?"

"Yeah. It's just . . . Chen's probably taken Cole's powers already. He might be in the Factory right now, and who even _knows_ what goes on in that Factory, and it . . . " He shook his head. "It should've been me."

Garmadon considered.

"It was Cole's choice to throw you the Blade though, wasn't it?"

"That's what's so lousy about it," sighed Jay. "He did it for me. We weren't getting along that well—"

"I noticed," said Garmadon drily.

"—and I guess we both said a bunch of dumb stuff. But now I can't stop thinking about all the names I called him." Jay punched the rock face half-heartedly. "Heh. Might've known he'd turn around and be all nice just to make me feel like a jerk. Typical Cole maneuver."

"You think he'd want you to feel guilty?"

"Probably."

Garmadon started to say something, then shook his head and chuckled.

"Well, maybe you have a point. I used to have a brother who was exceedingly good at making me feel guilty too. And might I add, he took every opportunity to do so."

"_Used_ to?"

"Oh, he still tries; he's just lost leverage now," said Garmadon gravely. Jay bit back a smile.

"But honestly, though," resumed the sensei. "In the end, it's not really about who owes whom. That's one of the special things about family—there's no tally of debts and favors, no keeping score. Some of us may need more forgiveness or kindness than others. Maybe some of us get more of those than we deserve. And . . . sometimes it can feel like more than you can ever repay."

Jay avoided the older man's eyes, shy about what he knew must be some personal memories. Heck, he and Cole had only gone through some scuffling and name-calling—he couldn't imagine the weight of guilt that must come with being a former evil maniac who'd literally tried to kill his family members.

"So, what is there?" he ventured at last. "It just—it's not fun, feeling like you owe someone that majorly. I can't take back everything I said, and I don't know if I can make up for it, so what do I do?"

"Try anyway," said Garmadon, shrugging. "But accept that family is bigger than keeping score, and just be grateful for that. When someone gives you kindness, receiving it gracefully is important too."

Jay tilted his head, mulling over the proposition.

"And you could always try being nice to him yourself once we get him out of there," Garmadon added, with the barest hint of a smirk. "See how _he_ likes it."

"I might." Jay smiled, his eyes still distant. "Once we do get him out . . . "

There was a beat of silence.

"He'll be fine, you know," said Garmadon gently. "You're all tough. And he _is_ the ninja of Earth—he can weather anything like a rock." Of course Jay was no doubt aware of this already; just that it always helped to hear it from someone else.

"Yeahhhh." Jay finally shook himself from his thoughts and grinned genuinely this time. "Yeah. Things always did kinda bounce off Cole without even leaving a dent. Training equipment, enemies, falling stagelights, small motor vehicles . . . "

"Tell me that last one hasn't been tested."

Jay smirked and pointedly said nothing. A few moments later, though, he broke the impending silence with a serious, "Oh, and—er—thanks, Sensei."

"Any time," smiled Garmadon. He glanced upwards—they had been climbing through snow instead of scrabbling up rock for quite a while now. "Looks like we're nearing the peak."

"Hurry up, you guys!" Lloyd called as if on cue. "We're waiting for you!"

The four of them stepped onto the peak together. The view was breathtaking: the glassy black of the ocean stretched out in every direction, with the dark, starry sky spreading enormously overhead. Far below their feet the island's jungles lay still and mysterious, the occasional light from the compound glinting through stirring palm leaves; far across the ocean, a tiny smudge of ruddy glow stained the sky. New Ninjago City. It looked like a miniscule drop of fluorescent paint.

"It's _cold_," shivered Jay.

Unexpectedly Lloyd shouted "HELLO!" at the top of his lungs, and for a while he, Kai, and Jay hollered out into the night trying to get an echo. Eventually they gave it up—there was only open ocean, nothing to echo from.

"You think they heard us back home?" deadpanned Lloyd.

"I'd hesitate to say for sure they _didn't_," said Garmadon drily. "Thank you. You've saved me the bother of writing to tell them where we are."

"Oh, keep shouting! Maybe we can ask them to send pizza!" put in Jay. Lloyd laughed, then looked back over his shoulder.

"Kai, what are you—where did you get _that?!_"

"Don't act so surprised," grinned Kai. "I told you I was carrying lunch _trays._ I smuggled 'em out of the dining hall."

"Uhh . . . why?"

"To sled on. I've heard that's the hip thing in colleges and stuff, and I've always wanted to try it."

" . . . Sledding on lunch trays is hip?"

"Don't knock it," scoffed Kai, busily trying to configure a couple of trays into a snowboard-like formation. "With a slope this steep, we'll go down insanely fast."

"I like how you say 'we'," said Jay, joining Lloyd in observing the procedure. "You couldn't steer those things! What if you see a tree?"

"Then I'll just do Spinjitzu," shrugged Kai.

"So spinning while you hit a tree headfirst at forty miles per hour makes it hurt less?"

"Probably not . . . " admitted Kai. "But it looks cooler!"

"You're insane," groaned Lloyd.

"Yep." Kai tossed a pair of trays in their direction. "Now, ya in or not?"

Lloyd and Jay exchanged glances. Admittedly their curiosity was piqued.

"Will your dad let us?" asked Jay under his breath. Lloyd looked back to Garmadon, who seemed to be taking a great interest in the distant horizon.

"Hey, he hasn't seen anything," he grinned, and plopped one of the trays down next to Kai's. The fire ninja shook his head in disbelief.

"I'll be honest, Lloyd; your dad's pretty cool."

"Seriously," agreed Jay. Lloyd grinned sheepishly.

"Yeahhhh, I know. I guess I'm lucky." Then he checked hastily over his shoulder and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "But you didn't hear that from me!"

"Got teenager credential to keep up?" smirked Jay.

"You know it."

The trays were not the most effective sleds. There was too little surface area to spread out the rider's weight like a proper sled, and they spent more time floundering their way out of the snow than actually gliding over it. At last Jay got the idea to overlap all the trays and use them as one large sled, after which point they very nearly did hit forty miles per hour and were forced to overturn the sled violently before they really did hit a tree.

The shabby beds in the dining hall weren't the only reason Lloyd's back was sore the next night, but he'd have told you it was well worth it.


	4. Ep 38-39: He Was (Not) a Sk8r Boi

**Whee! Episode 38 was my favorite~**

* * *

After the adrenaline high of the Thunderblades match came a very rapid and violent adrenaline crash. It was still the wee hours of morning, so most of the contestants stumbled back to bed. (The bunks in the dining hall seemed so much more comfortable now.) Since Chen said the next match wouldn't be till tomorrow afternoon, it seemed unlikely many of them would be rising before eleven.

The ninja, however, had a pretty hard-set habit of rising early, instilled by years of Sensei Wu waking them at unholy hours with a tea gong. Jay found himself awake at seven-thirty, and despite his efforts to fall aleep again (he really was tired), he ached too much all over to manage it. He, Lloyd, and Kai had definitely suffered the most during what had to be the century's roughest game of Thunderblades, but nobody had escaped without a bruise or two. Definitely some sore ankles all around. He doubted any of them would want to put on skates again for a _long_ time.

Across the room, Lloyd yawned and sat up. Groaning sleepily, he rolled his shoulders to flex out some of the soreness and rubbed his eyes.

"Can't sleep either, huh?" called Jay softly.

"Nnn." Lloyd stifled another yawn and blinked over at the bunk next to Jay's. "Say . . . where's Kai?"

Somehow they already knew where to look. Sure enough, as they approached the Thunderblades arena, they heard the steady click-clack of skate wheels.

"He's gotta be crazy," groaned Jay. Lloyd shrugged; even if they didn't quite believe it, neither of them was really surprised. Kai was too proud to let last night's fiasco just go by unaddressed.

"Just has to be the best at everything," grumbled Jay to no one in particular, rubbing his head tiredly. "Can't let it rest, heck no. Ugh." He glanced at Lloyd. "You coming?"

"Maybe later." Lloyd's eyes had wandered and were now fixed on the center of the arena, where Chen's rotating throne-like chair stood empty. "I wanna have a look at that thing."

"Be careful," said Jay, pulling a face. "You might get infected with his crazy if you touch it."

"Well, if I start to act like Chen, pull me away from there and hit me on the head till I snap out of it."

"Gladly."

Lloyd chuckled and trotted off to examine the chair, circling it curiously before clambering up onto the seat and giving it an experimental spin. Meanwhile Jay sighed in resignation, buckled on a pair of skates, and hit the skating track. He could see Kai up ahead, step-gliding inelegantly along and keeping close to the lower wall.

"Want some company?" Jay asked, skating up next to him and slowing to match his pace. The fire ninja gave him a disgruntled look.

"You're already in skates. If I say 'no,' are you gonna just go and take them off again?"

"Okay, so it was rhetorical." Jay shrugged. "You're stuck with me."

Kai grunted and grabbed at the wall hastily as his feet slid in opposite directions.

"You should probably lace your skates tighter. You've gotta have solid support on the ankles," said Jay. Kai looked up, a little surprised at the non-judgmental tone; he'd expected teasing.

"Relax already. We all had to start somewhere," scoffed Jay, as if reading his mind. "Now tighten those laces and get serious about this!"

Kai did a little better with the relaced skates. He continued slowly around the track, with Jay alternately cruising by his side and chattering advice or darting ahead to complete a solo lap. The slow pace probably bored him a fair bit, and Kai had to admit he appreciated that he took the trouble. Having some company was pretty nice after all—if nothing else it distracted him from the aching in his ankles.

"Don't try to push with your toes," scolded Jay, returning from one of his speed laps and scuffing sideways to brake. "You've gotta turn your foot diagonal and stroke in a kind of fishbone pattern."

"I'd like to see a fish roller-skating," grumbled Kai, but tucked in his tongue and tried to pick up a little speed.

Abruptly there was a sharp clicking noise, loud in the quiet arena, and a large wooden barrier painted with a terrifying glowing-eyed figure sprang out of the floor right in front of the two rollerbladers. Both yelped; Kai wiped out immediately, while Jay jigged backwards for a moment, flailing, before joining him on the floor. For a second they stared up at the looming shadowy form, startled speechless.

"Sorry!" Lloyd's voice drifted from the center of the arena. "Hit one of the buttons!"

Kai and Jay shifted their wide-eyed gazes to each other for just a second, bewildered, before they both burst out laughing.

"What even _is_ that?" sputtered Jay, getting up and skating over to inspect the threatening tableau. "It looks like something out of the stories Pa told me to keep me from leaving the junkyard at night!"

Kai chuckled, gingerly pushing himself to his feet as well.

"How did we miss those during the race? They're hideous enough they should have put the whole competition to a stop."

Working their way around the barrier, they continued onwards around the track—only to have one of the ramps shoot up from the floor a mere thirty seconds later, flipping them both off their feet.

"LLOYD!"

"Gah, sorry!" came Lloyd's distant voice again. Kai groaned, sitting up and shaking out his head.

"I wonder what color it turns when you bruise a bruise . . . "

Jay twisted around to check the back of his shoulder.

"Kind've greenish," he reported. Kai groaned again.

Meanwhile Lloyd's scruffy head popped up above the arena wall. He winced when he caught sight of the damage he'd wrought.

"Sorry about that, I was trying to find the spin control. Those buttons aren't labeled, y'know—I don't know _how_ Chen can tell which ones to push."

"Yeah, well." Jay shook a hand at him warningly. "No more buttons, a'right? We don't need a Master Chen Junior popping trapdoors under our feet."

"Okay, okay." Lloyd clambered over the wall and pulled a pair of skates out of the nearest cubby. "Guess I might as well join you guys."

Now that trapdoors had become a topic, the conversation turned back to the competition. They skated three abreast and sized up their fellow contestants, sorting out who was now on their side, who they still had to work on, and who was likely to win tomorrow's match between the masters of Darkness and Poison.

"It's a good thing Camille's out, though," reflected Jay. "I don't think we'd have been able to get her to join us."

"I dunno." Lloyd glanced aside guiltily. "I wish we'd been able to tie or something. It feels kinda rough shoving people down trapdoors just to stay on top."

"Hey, we've all been there," said Kai, with a rather guilty expression of his own. "But she'll be okay, don't worry. You saw what a tough cookie she was."

"Talk _about_ tough cookies," shuddered Jay. "I hate t'say it, but if she always plays that rough, it's probably a good thing we got her out of the way."

"Aww, come on." Lloyd shook his head in protest. "She wasn't _that_ bad."

"Uh, hello?" Jay folded his arms. "She got everyone in the tournament to gang up on us!"

"Well yeah, but—in the end, _we_ all ganged up on _her,_" said Lloyd. "We're all playing pretty dirty. She was just fighting hard to stay on top, just like the rest of us."

"I dunno, I still say there was something sneaky about that girl," muttered Jay. He gave Lloyd an odd look. "I'm kinda surprised you'd be sticking up for her, after she knocked you all around the track and threw you headfirst out of the buggy."

"Hey, respect where it's due. She skated pretty well, and she wasn't half-bad with a blade either," said Lloyd. He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Kind've had a nice laugh too."

"Ohh." Jay nodded and continued skating. He exchanged a silent glance with Kai, then looked back to Lloyd. "So then, how does your dad feel about becoming a grandpa?"

"How does my dad feel about—" Lloyd blinked, registering. Then there was a roar of skates against wood as Jay took off for dear life, with Lloyd in hot pursuit.

"Guys! Hey!" yelped Kai as the force of the others' start nearly swept him over. Laughing in spite of himself, he grabbed hold of the scarily-painted wooden popup to stay upright, listening to the commotion circling around the other side of the track. It was a nice change to have Jay teasing someone other than him about possible romantic interests.

His thoughts drifted back to Skylor and the earnest words she'd exchanged with him just after the race. His face grew a little hot—he'd really made a fool of himself in front of her, and (he was reluctant to admit it even to himself) that was one of the main reasons he was so determined to improve his skating skills. But he hadn't felt her judging him, even when he pretty much fell against her—she'd been dead serious set on one topic: getting him to understand the razor's edge they were currently walking. Chen could easily strike them all down at any second if he found out about the alliance.

He shook his head hard, trying to pull his mind away from how pretty and passionate her eyes had been in that moment. There were other urgent things to think about now. Things like winning over the remaining Elemental Masters, rescuing the ones who had already fallen, and finding Zane. Still, now that they had so many new allies, things were looking more optimistic than ever before.

Lloyd and Jay swept past him again, going down in a tangle of limbs and skates moments later as Lloyd finally tackled the ninja of lightning. Kai rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the scuffle, then looked down at his skates and grinned.

For a change, he was the only one still on his feet.

* * *

**Squeeeeeee . . .**

**Lloyd X Camille, you guys. Ship it. Ship it hard. Form and energy together make up the universe! Or at least the entire field of physics.**

**The Elemental Masters must be scared to so much as move by now. The way Season 4 went, you look cross-eyed at someone and people will be digging a pairing out of it.**

**Just for the record, yeah, I cheerfully ship Kailor. And Pixane, of course. Machete Girl and I are becoming avid supporters of DareYa . . . And while PhysicsShipping is my OTP, I'll still take SmokeAndMirrors, and a sort of best-friends variant of ThinkFast, and oh, _yes_, Heavy-Metal Poisoning . . .**

**. . . Eh heh. Honestly? I'm just in it for the pairing names. So many options . . . this is just beautiful beyond words. T_T**

**Except PhysicsShipping. No one will ever take that away from me. :[**

**Anyway! The scary popups really are a thing. You can see them if you pause while Lloyd is driving the buggy past obstacles on the track, but I'm warnin' ya, they're the stuff of nightmares. **


	5. Ep 39-40: Into the Woods

**Wellllll, last chapter was humor, now the angst train resumes service! There seemed to be a pretty significant gap between episodes 39 and 40, but the only useful story idea I could think of involved a character I never really cared about much. But what do you know, I actually enjoyed writing this quite a bit! What do you guys think? . . . **

* * *

The jungle was muggy and dark, strongly scented with moist soil and algae. The ground squished beneath Nya's feet as she dashed between the trees, slapping aside ferns and ducking under branches. Were Clouse and the grunts still after her? Would they be able to track her? How soon till she was found, and . . . what would happen when she was?

_Not 'when.' 'If,'_ Nya told herself firmly. She had the evil spell that could bring Ninjago to ruin stuffed up her sleeve, right now, and she couldn't afford to let Chen or Clouse get it back. Briefly she considered destroying the page she had stolen, but supposing Clouse had a copy somewhere? It would be better for them to be able to see what they were up against.

After two hours, she couldn't run anymore. There had been no signs of pursuit, and she must be miles away from the main palace by now, even if she _had_ been going in circles. Which she hopefully hadn't.

Stumbling upon a little pool, she sank down to rest gratefully. She was exhausted, sore from her tussle with Clouse, and hungry as all get out; most of all, though, she was thirsty. Dipping her hand into the still water, she grimaced. It was rancid and slimy-feeling, not fit to drink. Cruel jungle, taunting her like that.

Still, at least it was cool. Pulling off her shoes, she plunged her feet into the water to savor the soothing rush of cold. Sitting back, she ran a hand down her face tiredly and sighed when it came away smeared with white. She'd forgotten she was still wearing the kabuki makeup; it must look a frightful mess by now, streaked from the sweat dripping down her face.

She set to work scrubbing her face and hands thoroughly, removing every last trace of the paint, lipstick, and eyeshadow. Even with the funny water, it still felt delicious to clean the thick, pasty substance from her skin. Ugh. How did the real kabuki stand this stuff day in and day out?

The real kabuki. Nya shuddered. She had spent _way_ too much time in the company of Chen's simpering palace staff over the last day, and they had all but driven her up the wall. All they ever did was giggle and gossip and fuss over their appearances. Even as she disdained them, she felt a kind of pity for the lot of them; how could anyone have that little in her head?

Although granted, some of their gossip had been pretty interesting. Most of it was about the contestants in the Tournament—too many debates about who was handsome and who they'd date for her tastes, but it was amusing to pick out the comments about her own friends and family.

_That green one with the blond hair_—_such a little gentleman!_ That'd be Lloyd. Gentleman, pfff. Never thought she'd see the day. _And who's that gray-haired man who's always with them? Such a stern figure! I always give him a wide berth, he's terrifying._ Aww, now that was a little unfair. She supposed Sensei Garmadon could be pretty intimidating to an outside observer, but he was really quite nice once you got to know him. And if you were used to Sensei Wu already.

And Kai. Nya didn't know if she should laugh or cry. She heard more gossip about her brother than about the rest of the contestants put together, most of it interspersed with squeals and gushing about how _dreamy_ his eyes—or his hair—or his muscles—or his attitude—heck, pretty much everything about him were. She sincerely hoped he didn't know how popular he was right now; he was vain enough already.

On the other hand, some of the things she heard made her feel oddly uneasy. _Ruthless. So fierce. Did whatever it took. _And . . . and some things she were sure must not have been Kai. It must have been the usual exaggeration of rumors. But she still would have to ask him later . . .

She sat back, squirming as an itch traveled down her back. These clothes were hot, and she would have given a lot to have a clean change. Or at least a chance to . . . she froze as her hand, slipped under her collar, caught fabric. The kabuki dress was on _over_ her usual samurai costume! Inadvertantly a smile danced over her face. Bless Dareth. It was technically all his fault that she was on the run in the first place, but bless him all the same.

Gratefully she more of ripped than removed the kabuki dress, throwing it aside impatiently. Then for good measure she scruffed up her hair, took a deep gulping breath, and plunged her face into the pool. It was a hellish temptation to open her mouth and drink, drink like a parched desert dog, but she couldn't afford to spend the night vomiting or worse. Getting sick on stagnant water would make her much too vulnerable.

When her breath finally ran out, she swang back upright and sat back, feeling water streaming from her hair and dripping onto her shoulders. She was still thirsty and tired and sticky—but oh, so wonderfully _cool._ That was worth more than she'd ever have thought.

As she caught her breath, her mind wandered back to those last few rumors it had not yet covered . . . The ones about Cole and Jay. While the individual commentary was amusing, what had struck her the most was how often they were mentioned together. Fighting.

_Seems like all they ever do! Snipe, snipe, snipe at each other, carry on in public like fools!_

_It must be quite a girl they're fighting over. She must be the loveliest thing in creation._

_And an angel! To be worth such devotion!_

_ Hmph. If she was such an angel, why would she let them fight? I'll bet she's one of those man-eaters—you know the type, beautiful but cruel. _

_Ooooooh, I've always wanted to be one of those . . ._

_Don't even talk, Lucretia. It's really a shame that two nice young men would waste their time chasing after a heartless tease. They would be so much more attractive if they were eligible, don't you think?_

The water in the pool had gone still after Nya's plunge. The moonlight angled just right to sift through the leaves and cast a faint mirror across the surface, and Nya caught sight of her own reflection. Leaning over the water, she stared into the dark eyes gazing back at her.

Man-eater. A heartless tease. Or . . . the loveliest angel in creation? All words used unwittingly to describe _her. _Was she one or the other? She wasn't really either, was she? Studying her reflection, she tried to tell herself that there was no truth in any of their words. She knew she was not beautiful. She told herself she was not cruel.

"_That was big of you both . . . _"

Water flew as she slapped the surface angrily, and the reflection shattered into thousands of moonlit shards. Straightening her outfit, she clambered to her feet, teeth clenched.

Now was a good time to move on.


	6. Ep 40-41: Like They Do in Texas, Please

**Heya folks! Approaching the depot for Blue Line; all passengers for humor train transfer here!**

**. . . These train metaphors got weird fast.**

**So I'm assuming you guys have a basic knowledge of poker terms? I tried to write this so most terms would be guess-able from context, but lemme know if anything's confusing and I'll put a little glossary up here. **

**I don't own Ninjago, nor any kind of motorized lawn equipment!**

* * *

"Give it up, already," sighed Jay, watching as Kai unleashed his fury upon the bars of their cell. The six Elemental Masters—Jay, Kai, Neuro, Invizable, Shadow, and Griffin Turner—were crammed rather tightly into the little mobile prison, and Kai's flailing was putting someone at risk of an elbow to the head.

"How are they blocking our powers?!" gritted Kai, giving the bars a frustrated kick. "I could melt through these in seconds if I just had my fire power!"

"You think you've got issues, kid?" drawled Shadow from the back. "If _I_ had my powers, I could just ooze right out of here and get the keys."

Kai gave him a dirty look. It was pretty clear now that Shadow hadn't actually been working with Chen—and Kai had found out the _real_ spy in a rather personally painful manner—but he still resented Shadow for being so troublesome and standoffish.

"We are all at a disadvantage," said Neuro quietly. "If I had my powers, I could simply influence the guard to hand the keys to us."

"You can _do_ that?" asked Jay, wide-eyed.

"The power of suggestion," shrugged Neuro. Jay edged away from him a little.

"Well, it's no good standing around here talking about things we _could_ do," Kai growled. "The question is, what _can_ we do?"

"Sit here and wait for Lloyd," said Jay, swinging his legs. Kai gave an angry groan and let his head thud back against the bars. He _hated_ having to depend on anyone else for anything.

"We could also play poker!" said Griffin out of nowhere. A pack of playing cards appeared from his pocket. "You guys know how?"

Five minutes later they were all squinting at handfuls of cards, even Shadow. They had no poker chips and nothing to bet, but they managed to play pretty intensely all the same.

"Hmmmmm . . . I raise," said Jay, tugging at his lip. "I'm betting _three_ hundred!"

"I raise too," said Neuro. "Three hundred."

There was a chorus of "yup"'s all around. Jay squinted about, then raised again. And again. And again. Invizable folded eventually, then Griffin, but the others kept doggedly at it, raising their bets whenever Jay raised his. At last, when they'd reached a thousand each, Jay gave up. They all showed their cards, and Jay had a pretty terrible hand—he'd been bluffing. Unsuccessfully.

"How did you know?" he asked, watching crestfallen as Shadow raked in his "winnings," then squinting suspiciously at Neuro. "Are you _sure_ your mind-reading powers are disabled?"

"It's not him," said Kai lazily. "You're just that terrible at a poker face."

"Poker face?"

"You have to keep a blank expression," said Invizable. Jay stared across at the faceless Master of Light for a moment.

" . . . I'll keep that in mind."

They were in the middle of another round when there was a sudden clang just outside their cell. Whirling to the barred door, they found Chen and a couple of grunts had arrived with a leafblower. Chen flipped the switch.

"What the heck?!" yelped Jay, as a violent gust of wind blew into the prison van. They all shielded their eyes as dust began to whirl around the tiny space, the gale tugging cards from their hands and blowing them around the room like a tornado.

Chen changed the settings, and the leafblower switched to suction mode. The fluttering cards flew out through the bars of the cell and disappeared into the leafblower's bag. Chen switched the machine off and fished out the stolen deck.

"I hold all the cards!" he said sternly, shaking a fistful of printed pasteboard in their direction. Then he wandered off, cackling, leaving a very bewildered group of Elemental Masters.

"Okay," said Jay at length. "This guy could _not_ get any weirder."

"Don't push your luck," grumbled Shadow.

"Mannnnn, those cards were handed down from my dad!" lamented Griffin. He slumped back in his seat, then brightened slightly. "Ah well, 'least I still have an ace up my sleeve!"

That said, he actually did pull an ace of spades out of his sleeve.

"Awwww, so you've been cheating!" sang Kai, and there followed a storm of catcalls and good-natured scolding. An embarrassed but amused Master of Speed was about to start defending himself—only just then Chen came stomping back and snatched the ace of spades right out of Griffin's hand.

"I hold ALL the cards!" he bellowed, and stomped off again.

Silence in the prison van for a moment.

"Awww, man!" said Griffin sadly.

"And _now_," gritted Shadow, "he could officially _not _get any weirder."


	7. Ep 41-42: Sonication

**Blarrrrrrrgh. How long has it been since I've updated this thing? Shame upon me. I'm really sorry about the delay, guys; things have been insanely busy and this chapter was just clinging to the doorframe throwing a tantrum. But the next one should go much better!**

**Also, turns out I've been calling half of 'em by wrong names up till now. "Tox" and "Toxikita" are close enough I guess, but it turns out "Invizable" is really "Mr. Pale" and possibly "Shadow" is actually "Shade." Too bad for them, though! Mr. Pale is not as cool as Invizable. **

**And it would appear the official spelling is "Chamille," with an H. I don't know how to take this. T_T**

**Disclaimer: Own nothin' and no one!**

* * *

Things had been chaotic during the last few hours in the Factory. By the time the captured Elemental Masters (minus Kai) had been chivvied onto the assembly line, Karlof was already putting the finishing touches on the Roto Jet and all they really had time for was to fill the newcomers in on the plan. Oh, and instill in them a passion for Positive Thinking. That was Jay's fault.

And there hadn't been much time for enmity while they were breaking their way out of there either. The gang who'd been spending a longer stint at the Factory was already pretty tightly-knit—one day at the mind-numbing production line, one night in a lonely cell, and when someone offered you a smile and a conversation you didn't say no. Ash and Camille had become great friends, and Bolobo seemed to share a different in-joke with everyone. Even the quiet, broken-spirited workers who had been laboring in the Factory for years after Chen shanghaied them seemed to be warming up to the boisterous newcomers.

However, now they were all free again, and while Chen, Clouse, and Skylor had disappeared, the hunt was on to capture all of Chen's underlings. In the midst of the rout, match winners mingled with the very ones they had sent down Chen's trapdoors—and some clashes were inevitable.

* * *

10:48 AM

"Woah, woah, guys!" protested Cole, prying apart Toxikita and Shadow. "Come on, the Tournament's over. Can't we just put it all behind us?"

"He cheated," hissed Toxikita. "I would've won that match!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Shadow growled back. "There _is_ no such thing as cheating in a no-holds-barred fight."

"Hey, hey." Cole waved his hands for quiet and pointed off into the jungle. "You have issues, you can take them up with those grunts who were keeping us chained up. There's no point in fighting each other anymore! Come on guys, how about just shaking hands?"

Both sides involved folded their arms and looked away. Cole sighed, threw up his hands, and left them. He spared a glance for Gravis and Griffin Turner, who were also giving each other dirty looks, but didn't even bother intervening.

"Geez, with these people!" he muttered, rejoining his teammates. "You'd think they'd have better things to do than rehash stupid arguments."

"You'd think so, yeah," said Kai. If sarcasm could drip, there would have been a small pool of it forming around his feet. Cole, catching his implication, gave him a disgruntled look.

"Don't get too smug, hotshot. You owe something like half the island an apology by now."

"What?!" Kai folded his arms rebelliously. "They're not getting one."

"Yeah, we'll just see about that. Last I heard, Ash wasn't—"

Cole was cut short by a whoop of "found some!" from the jungle ahead. Griffin had apparently tracked down a sizeable posse of Chen's henchmen, and for a while everyone was busy chasing them down, knocking them out, and-or tying them up.

"They're getting away!" called Invizable, dodging one snake-skulled henchman and pointing after a cluster of others who were dashing off into the forest. Everybody was currently busy except Toxikita and Jay, who both dove after the escapees with a will.

"Be careful! The jungle is full of booby traps!" Nya shouted after them, but they were already gone. Unnoticed by anyone else, Shadow looked after them with narrowing eyes. Then he abruptly melted into the dappled forest floor (leaving his opponent highly bewildered) and slid off after them.

* * *

11:05 AM

The fleeing henchmen didn't stick together, and Jay was slow on his bad leg, so he and Toxikita split up. Unfortunately, the grunts knew the jungle better than either of the Elemental Masters did, and in no time they had both lost their quarry.

Eventually Toxikita slowed from a dash to a jog, then stopped altogether. She turned around slowly, listening, but she couldn't hear anything besides regular jungle noises. No sign of the grunt she had been chasing, no sign of Jay either, and she mayyyyyy possibly be the tiniest bit lost by now. She was about to mutter an oath when a soft noise suddenly caught her ear. It didn't sound quite like a human being, and yet . . .

"Who's there?" she called, turning around again. No reply. The leaves rustled, jungle birds cried out, and yet there seemed to be an odd sort of . . . whisper . . .

Frowning, Toxikita began to walk slowly along, peering at her surroundings. The sound seemed to follow her; was it behind her? Ahead of her? You could almost say it sounded like a sha—

Her foot landed on a tripwire. There was a sharp _click!_, a bark of "Look out!", and a dark shape exploded from the forest floor and knocked her aside. A long spear thwacked into the ground exactly where Toxikita had been standing a second ago. Toxikita herself, plus Shadow, tumbled safely into a large fern.

"Where did you come from?!" spluttered the Master of Poison, sitting up and glaring.

"I followed you," replied Shadow coolly, glaring back. "I figured it was a good time to settle this match."

"Oh yeah?" Toxikita clambered to her feet. "Fair enough. Let's finish this!"

They both backed apart slightly, digging in their toes. They were just tensing to spring at each other when there was a call of "Hey, what's all the noise? Tox, that you?" Jay appeared from the trees nearby, looking surprised. "Say Shadow, when'd you get here?"

"Get lost!" hissed Toxikita, annoyed at the interruption.

"I already am," said Jay ruefully. "Don't suppose you guys know the way back to the main compound?"

He limped towards them, seemingly ignoring the fact that they'd been poised for combat. Both the would-be brawlers growled under their breaths and moved to shoo him off—but it proved to be a poor life choice for all three of them. At the exact same instant they all stepped on the same camouflaged pit, the ground caved away, and they tumbled down into darkness with a yelp.

* * *

11:15 AM

"Owwwwww!" groaned Jay, once they'd had a second to recover from the shock. "Not another trapdoor!"

"Not exactly. Just a pit trap," growled Shadow, nursing a sore shoulder. "Nice going."

"Don't pin this on me!" Toxikita snapped back. "I didn't see _you_ noticing it first!"

"Woah, woah, it's all our faults," said Jay hastily. "Let's just get out of here." He peered upwards, frowning; the pit was pretty deep and the walls slanted inwards slightly.

"You think either of you could jump high enough to grab the top?" he asked.

"Nuh-uh. You're the ninja, aren't you supposed to do that kind of stuff?" said Toxikita.

"Sure, normally I could, but this foot isn't gonna let me jump anywhere," said Jay glumly. "Man, this bites. Guess we'll just have to wait until the others find us."

Toxikita and Shadow traded looks of dismay. It would take long enough already for the others to notice they were gone, who knew how much longer it would be before they managed to track them down?

"What about those shadows of yours?" asked Toxikita, folding her arms. "Can't you use those?"

"Look, just because I can turn into a shadow doesn't mean I can ooze straight up walls," Shadow gritted back. "Why don't _you_—"

"Woahhhhhh, woah woah woah," cut in Jay nervously. He was not keen on sitting here witnessing a heated quarrel—or worse, a fistfight—for who knew how long. "Let's just . . . sit here calmly, for a little while." He winced at the twin glares that were promptly directed his way. "Uhh . . . heard any . . . good jokes lately?" He winced harder. "Okay, forget I asked."

* * *

_11:20 AM_

The minutes ticked by. No help came. Shadow tried to cover his ears.

"Rock, paper, clamp, shoot. Rock, paper, clamp, shoot. Rock, paper, clamp—"

"Will you just shut up?!" the Master of Darkness finally exploded.

"But I can't stop now!" protested Jay. "Just let me break the tie. I've never seen one go on this long!"

" . . . You're playing against _yourself._"

Jay blinked down at his hands.

"Well what do you know! Finally, a worthy opponent." He shook hands with himself gravely.

Toxikita dragged a hand down her face, while Shadow slumped back with a groan. Jay gave them both an innocent smile—after years on the ninja team, he was well-versed in the art of driving people up the wall.

"We have to keep making some kind of noise, it'll help the others find us," he explained. "Don't suppose you guys would feel like keeping up a little friendly conversation?"

"I've got nothin' to say," grunted Shadow, leaning back against the wall with arms folded.

"Tox?"

The Master of Poison rolled her eyes uncooperatively.

"Well, okay then," said Jay, shrugging. "Guess it's up to me!"

"On second thought—!" Toxikita held up one hand hastily, but Jay was already off at full-speed.

"Okay, so do either of you guys watch _Starfarer?_ No? Yeah, I kinda figured you weren't the science-fiction type. But it's really good, for a sci-fi! And they have a lot of other stuff going on so it's actually super-deep sometimes, especially in Season 5 . . . "

Toxikita and Shadow exchanged scowls.

"This is all your fault," hissed Toxikita under her breath.

"Liar," Shadow retorted. They both scowled again and fell silent; talking around Jay's wall of sound was difficult.

* * *

11:25 AM

"—And so it's actually probably a continuity error, but a lot of the fans have come up with theories to actually have it make sense in-canon, because I guess they don't like there to be holes like that. But I kinda like it, because then it makes you think about—"

Toxikita pulled out a packet of poison powder, aiming to blow it into Jay's face, but Shadow grabbed her arm.

"You can't knock him out," he said. "He's right, we do have to make noise if we're gonna get found, and if you poison him that means _we'll_ have to talk."

Toxikita gritted her teeth, but had to agree with his logic.

* * *

11:30 AM

"Nobody's ever explained it! His beard just grew insanely long in like, ten years! Kai says he probably drank Tomorrow's Tea to get wiser, but that doesn't really make sense because—"

"I can't believe I'm saying this," sighed Toxikita, covering her eyes, "but if you gave me the choice to go back to the Factory right now . . . "

"Quit whining," grunted Shadow. "At least this is your first time; I was trapped in a prison van with this guy too. That one time was already twice too many."

* * *

11:35 AM

"—And then they just went _pow!_ and disappeared! And we never saw them again. Which was really lame, you know? Because they were seriously awesome and glowy and stuff, and you didn't have to worry about the blade when you weren't using them and mine could shoot really awesome lightning—"

Toxikita looked at Shadow wearily.

"Are you _sure_ it wouldn't be better to just knock him out and talk ourselves?"

"I'm starting to wonder," groaned Shadow. He tilted his head back against the wall, staring up at the patch of jungle and sky showing through the top of the pit. "When I ask myself why I ever bothered to follow you here in the first place . . . "

"Hmph. See, I told you this was your fault," said Toxikita. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't knocked me over."

"_You_ would be dead by a spear if I hadn't knocked you over," retorted Shadow drily.

"I probably wouldn't have walked there in the first place if I hadn't heard you following me!" Toxikita snapped back. Still, her expression grew a little pensive.

* * *

11:40 AM

"—I mean, what was the big idea with Chen's whole tournament anyway? It took forever and we coulda all died and stuff, and that would've messed everything up for him, but he still made us go through all those crazy challenges! That guy is psycho, I'm tellin' ya—"

"Say . . . " ventured Toxikita. "Why did you save me from that spear anyway?"

Shadow grunted, rolling his eyes.

"It's not like I could just stand there and let it happen. Besides, I needed you alive if we were going to have a rematch."

"Oh."

"I don't need to cheat to win," said Shadow tersely, scowling at the opposite wall of the pit. "And I intend to prove that."

Toxikita tossed a pebble thoughtfully. Jay switched to discussing the domestic habits of the common beaver.

* * *

11:41 AM

"What makes you think I cheated, anyway?" said Shadow suddenly. "The rematch isn't going to do much good if you just accuse me again afterwards."

"Well, the—" Toxikita hesitated, then shook her head. "I . . . okay, I guess I didn't really have anything to go by. I just . . . I guess I just couldn't believe you beat me. That quickly, too." She shrugged, looking away. "You're pretty good."

"Ehh." Shadow shrugged in return. "I didn't cheat, but I probably could've stood to be less rough with ya." He hesitated. "How bad exactly was the Factory?"

"On a scale of one to _this?_" Toxikita waved at Jay, who was insisting that he used to know Bolobo way back when he was a pizza deliveryman. "I'd say a one-point-five."

Shadow chuckled ironically.

"So, conversation?"

"Conversation," Toxikita grinned, fishing in her pocket and retrieving the poison packet.

"—And according to the theory of relativity, it's possible for two observers moving in different inertial reference frames to disagree about the time order of two events, but since both of their claims are equally valid—"

Toxikita was just about to put Jay into a very deep sleep when the lightning ninja suddenly stopped. The silence was practically alien; Toxikita hastily hid the fistful of poison behind her back.

"Did you just hear that?" said Jay, looking up. "I think I heard someone!"

"How in the world . . . " muttered Shadow, but Jay waved for quiet. Sure enough, there was a distant call in a familiar voice.

"Hey! We're over here! Down here!" shouted Jay.

"Guys? Where?" The voice drew nearer, becoming recognizable as Cole's. Toxikita gave a muffled cheer, while Shadow breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cole! We're in a pit trap!" hollered Jay. "Watch your step, you don't wanna—"

There was a sudden scuffle and yelp, and the bottom of the pit suddenly became a little more crowded. Jay and Toxikita groaned.

"Congratulations!" Shadow gave a sarcastic "woo-hoo" gesture. "You found us."

"Really? Awesome," said Cole, rubbing his head dizzily. "What do I win?"

"Noodles," deadpanned Jay. "All the noodles."

"Awwwwh man, that sucks. Trust me, I never wanna see another noodle." Cole shook out his head and sat up.

"Tell me you at least brought some of the others?" said Toxikita wearily.

"Tell me you _didn't,_" corrected Shadow. "We don't have room for _all_ of them to fall in here."

Cole chuckled awkwardly.

"Heh, sorry about that. Don't worry, I think I can pull a staircase out of the wall; we'll be out of here in no time." He started to inspect the walls, then registered a mild double-take as he realized the Masters of Darkness and Poison seemed to be getting along uncommonly well.

"Huh. Good to see you guys are, uh . . . all in one piece," he ventured.

"I managed to broker an agreement," chirped Jay, folding his arms smugly. Cole glanced at the others.

"Talked you into submission?"

"You do not even want to _know_."


	8. Ep 42-43: Imagine Dragons

**Annnnnnnnd here I said this update would come quickly. -_- I could give excuses, but I doubt you'd wanna hear 'em. So, my deepest apologies, and on to the story!**

**I had to explain what was up with those dragons. One episode the Elemental Masters are flying along like nobody's business, the next they had to lose a whole day getting used to the critters. So, prepare for pointless dragon shenanigans! Yesh.**

**Disclaimer: Don't even own an elemental iguana. **

* * *

Elemental dragons were super-cool, no doubt about that. The Elemental Masters were pretty excited to unlock this new aspect of their powers, and of course all were anxious to head out after Chen's army, so they wasted no time in starting towards Ninjago. The host of colorful legendary lizards spread across the sky was pretty impressive.

It was inevitable someone would look down eventually, though. They fished Neuro out of the ocean, turned around, and headed back.

As it turned out, handling a large glowing dragon made entirely out of your projected consciousness wasn't all that easy. The excitement of the discovery had made the creatures burn bright at first, but as the thrill wore off it became harder to focus and keep the dragon from disintegrating every time you got startled, or distracted, or careless . . . or heck, even if you sneezed. The practice turned out to be good for all of them. While Zane and a highly amused Griffin Turner attempted to get Neuro past his fear of heights, the others swooped about nearby and tested out their new rides.

"Weird; you can't stand up on these things!" said Cole. "It's like you're glued to the seat."

"Well, it's probably got to be attached to you all the time. You can't just have a piece of your mind wandering off on its own."

"I dunno, my mind wanders all the time . . . "

Lloyd didn't have the patience for ground lessons. He flapped about amongst the others, offering advice and occasionally catching someone from midair.

"Looking good!" he called down to Toxikita and Invizable. "Woah, easy!"

He snapped the reins, and his dragon lurched forward just in time to catch the back of Bolobo's cloak in its teeth.

"That's the fourth time!" called Lloyd wearily. "Stop getting distracted by the butterflies!"

"I'm the Master of Nature, what do you expect?" grumbled Bolobo.

Lloyd was about to reply, but broke off with a dismayed yelp. A spiny purple dragon suddenly shot up from below, clipping the wing of Lloyd's dragon and nearly throwing him and Garmadon clean off.

"What was that for?!" Lloyd shouted up. Camille merely laughed.

"Because you were there?"

She hauled violently at her dragon's reins to bring it around for another attack, but in her excitement her concentration slipped and the dragon disintegrated from underneath her. For a moment it seemed things would end badly, but then her fall came up short.

"You okay?" asked Lloyd, barely glancing over his shoulder. He was having a hard time channeling enough power to keep himself, his dad, Bolobo, and Camille airborne all at once. Camille blinked at him, registering, then gave an impatient snort.

"You mind your own business! I was doing fine," she snapped, sliding off the side of Lloyd's dragon, regenerating her own mount, and flapping off.

"You're welcome," Lloyd muttered.

"She seems like a nice girl," said Garmadon drily. Lloyd glanced over his shoulder, puzzled, then gave Jay and Kai a suspicious look. Both of them shrugged innocently.

"And she seems to be coming around again," continued Garmadon, squinting off into the distance where a purple speck was drawing rapidly nearer. "For all of our sakes, it might be safer if you set us down for a while."

Lloyd groaned something under his breath and dodged hastily as Camille's dragon screeched by.

Meanwhile, Zane wasn't making much headway. Neuro was able to keep his dragon in form very well up to a height of about three meters, then it pretty much became a hopeless case. Even when told to just not look down, the mere knowledge that he was rising that high above solid ground (and on a creature made of dreams and ectoplasm, no less) was enough.

"It's very safe," Zane kept insisting. "The good thing about elemental dragons is that they are simply extensions of your own will. They do not have minds of their own, so you never have to worry that they will become rebellious or try to throw you off."

"Yeah, come on, you're the Master of the _Mind_. You should have the easiest time controlling a mental dragon!" volunteered Griffin.

"You are not helping," muttered Neuro.

"Just do it like this!" said Griffin, hopping into the air and whirling his own dragon into being. Executing a fancy twirl, he zipped off full-speed and shot into the nearby jungle. Five seconds, then there was a crash, trees shook, and birds scattered squawking from that area. Griffin's dragon eventually heaved itself from the treetops, flopping erratically.

"I'm okay!" he called, swerving.

"He is definitely not helping," Neuro groaned. Zane spread his hands sympathetically.

Bolobo stayed on the ground for a while, not trusting himself to ignore the butterflies long enough for Lloyd to finish dogfighting Camille's dragon. Some of the other Elemental Masters were watching the altercation with interest; meanwhile Toxikita drew her dragon next to Shadow's and waved.

"How are you doing with that thing?" she called.

"Good," replied Shadow coolly. "It's easy."

"Y'know, I was thinking," said Toxikita. "This is kind of it, isn't it? You know, the buildup to a serious showdown. Once we get back to Ninjago, who knows what might happen. Right?"

"Fair enough." Shadow nodded.

"So . . . Rematch now?"

"Rematch."

Wings clattered, and the two elemental dragons sped off, neck-and-neck, swerving dangerously against each other. Meanwhile Ash and Karlof quietly exchanged words.

"Hey! Sparky!" called Ash, waving down Kai. "Get over here."

"Karlof want this 'rematch' they speak of," added the former electrical engineer, knocking his metal fists together.

"Wait, what?!" Kai looked from one Elemental Master to the other, startled.

"You heard us. I'm thinkin' you won by a fluke back there—both times—and it's about time we settled that question. We got sent to the Factory for that, y'know."

"See?" said Cole. "Told you half the island had it in for you."

Kai sighed impatiently, but shrugged.

"Fine, whatever. I can take 'em. Heck, anyone else want a piece of me while we're at it? How 'bout Lloyd? Still ticked about that staff?"

Cole glanced in that direction and winced at the sound of snarling and snapping teeth.

"He seems . . . busy."

"His loss," shrugged Kai. "Okay, which one of you wants to get clobbered first?"

"Who said anything about one at a time?" smirked Ash. Kai looked startled all over again.

"Wait, both at once?"

"Whatsamatter? Don't think you can handle it?"

"'Course I can! Throw in a couple more, and it might even be a fair fight," scoffed Kai—though it was a little less than fully convincing. He gave Cole a disgruntled glance while the others prepared their dragons.

"Thanks for the _warning_. If this ends in me needing stitches, I'm blaming _you_."

"You've got bigger things to worry about," said Cole, looking downwards. "Skylor's watching."

"She is?!"

"Yup. Definitely watching."

"Oh . . . " The wings on Kai's dragon suddenly flared twice as bright, and the beast reared back, roaring, before throwing itself forward into battle.

"Should have known," muttered Cole.

"Say, what about us?" Jay pulled even with him, his dragon flickering slightly as his attention shifted but eventually holding firm. "We should have a rematch too—y'know, just to see who'd have won if we kept going."

"Ehhh." Cole shrugged. "I'd have won."

"What?!" Jay snorted. "Okay, now I _really_ want a rematch."

"Knock it off, Jay," cut in Ash, flapping by with Kai in fierce pursuit. "He'd have won."

"Oh, for—Gimme some credit, would you? Lightning's one of the most powerful elements! It fries everything it strikes."

"Unless there's a lightning rod," said Ash, executing a neat hairpin loop.

"Yeah, so? What does that have to do with—"

"Lightning rods," insisted Ash, dodging a fireball. "You know. To channel the lightning into the _ground?_"

Jay looked at him with his mouth open for a moment. Eventually he closed it again and said nothing more of the matter—but his dragon, less taciturn, gave a frustrated growl and blew twin clouds of sparks from its nostrils. Cole tried not to laugh.

"Hey," called Griffin meanwhile, back on the ground. "I thought you said the dragons didn't have minds of their own?"

"They do not," said Zane. "They are only extensions of your own mind, conscious and subconscious."

"Huh." Griffin squinted upwards at where Lloyd and Camille's dragons, both missing some scales by now, had given up brawling and were instead rubbing noses, despite their riders' cries of protest and dragging at the reins.

"Welllll, if you say so . . . "

* * *

**Phew. Okay, so only one more now! Unless . . . well, I had a sort've random weird idea for a skit to go after Episode 44 too, messing around with the rumors circulating about Season 5. Not sure about it, though, 'cos it'd be pretty intensely ridiculous. What d'you guys think? **


	9. Ep 43-44: Safe and Sound

**Wooooo! Time to explain how a certain _someone_ got into the group shots while Lloyd was giving that pep talk back in Episode 44. The animators were sneaky, sneaky folks this season. This one isn't quite entirely between episodes**—**it takes place partly during Episode 44 too. **

**Disclaimer: Come on, I don't even own the Season 5 hype train. Much less Ninjago itself. **

* * *

Three days was a long time. Especially when you were wandering in the dark. Normally he would have had no trouble navigating Chen's underground tunnels—his dependable sitar would have given him a perfect auditory map of his surroundings. Now, however, he was stuck wandering without it.

Not that he was exactly complaining. Considering that losing his sitar by jamming it into the snake's mouth had saved his life, he'd take the loss. He counted himself lucky; he was pretty sure that the musical instrument could only prop the giant serpent's mouth open for a little while before being ground to splinters, but it had not only held long enough for him to get away—he hadn't run into the snake since then, either. Not even once. He wondered whether something had happened to it.

He was lucky in other ways, too. At first he had heard guards and grunts approaching every other minute, and finding hiding places when he couldn't see them had been fiendishly difficult. Over time, however, the number of encounters dropped steadily, and now there were none. Something really must have happened . . . something big . . . if only he could get out of these tunnels and find someone to ask!

He was just starting to wonder if he would lose his mind, wandering around eternally like this, when he felt a breeze. Drafts weren't uncommon down here, but this one was different; it was warm and smelled of peat and plants. Good sign! Eagerly he followed the wisping air to its source, and soon he heard birds and insects. The walls around him stopped echoing his footsteps—the sun was warm on his face—he was out!

Navigating the jungle was a little harder. There were no echoing walls telling him where to walk. Still, eventually his sensitive ears picked up the sound of distant machinery and doors banging, and as he moved towards the sound, human voices mixed in. There were several surprised cries as he stumbled into their midst.

It was the other factory workers. Having no battle experience, they had stayed behind on Chen's Island to continue dismantling his evil constructs, nailing shut the trapdoors, things like that. They were all startled to find there was one more Elemental Master still wandering around.

"It's too bad!" said one of them. "The others left just a few minutes ago."

"They left?! How? Why?"

The workers were very kind. They gave him a meal and explained to him about Chen's temporary defeat, his escape to Ninjago, and the others' pursuit on the elemental dragons. Honestly he didn't know what to think about it. Of course the others wouldn't have waited for him—they thought he was dead—but there was still something disappointing about being left out of the action.

Pacing impatiently on the dockside, he finally made up his mind: he would follow them. He didn't have an elemental dragon of his own, and even though he'd tried summoning it several ways, it never worked out. But that wasn't about to stop him! He would get over there and help them out, or his name wasn't Jacob Pevsner.

Luck was with him yet again. One of the workers found a small motorboat hidden in a cove, probably one of Chen's backup escape plans. It was only big enough to hold two, but that would suffice. Another worker loaned Jacob a harmonica; it wasn't the same as his sitar, but it allowed him to sweep his surroundings with music, which was much more effective than using other sounds to "see."

He made it to Ninjago safely. Once he was there, he wandered about frantically trying to find the other Elemental Masters, hoping that he hadn't missed all the action already. He heard panicked accounts of villages getting attacked by Anacondrai, but he heard nothing about the Elemental Masters. Had something happened to them?

For lack of better options, he headed down the road towards one of the villages he had heard was under attack, playing his borrowed harmonica to find his way. He'd only gone a few miles when he heard a truck approaching from up ahead. Just to be safe, he moved out of the road a bit.

The truck rumbled by. Seconds later brakes screeched, and the steady _beep, beep, beep_ of a reversing truck sounded.

"Hey!" someone shouted. Jacob turned. He was good with voices, and that one sounded familiar.

"Aren't you one of the guys from the Tournament?" called the voice.

"Yes! Who're you?"

"It's me, Jay! I was in the Tournament too, remember? What happened to you, anyway?"

"It's a long story. What are _you_ doing in a truck?!"

"Even longer story. Get in, we've got to head back to headquarters. I'll explain along the way."

When they arrived at the headquarters, the chatter of Jay's narrative gave way to the rumble of other trucks parking and a slurry of voices all asking each other questions at once. Jay got distracted in a conversation with Ash, and Jacob wandered ahead into the building with the other Elemental Masters. He could sense the tension in the air around him, and it only exacerbated his own anxiety. From what Jay had told him, things were looking really bad. The Anacondrai had tricked them with empty decoy trucks and were now running around pillaging villages left and right, unchecked. Was Ninjago doomed? Or did the others still have some kind of plan?

Suddenly there was a yelp from nearby.

"_Jacob! _You're alive?!" The Master of Sound suddenly found himself caught in a crushing hug, then being shook lightly (well, lightly for Cole) by the shoulders. "How? Oh my gosh, how did you get away from the—Karlof! Karlof, look who's here!"

Even as used to sorting sounds as Jacob was, the ensuing commotion was pretty bewildering. He gathered, at any rate, that the others were happy to see he was all right, which was . . . well, it was nice. Everyone seemed a lot friendlier than they had back in the Tournament.

"I can't believe this," said Cole amazedly. "What were the odds?"

"Not that good," admitted Jacob. "I was lucky."

"Yeah, well," said Cole as they headed down to the control center, ready to hear Nya and Sensei Wu's analysis. "If you could make it out of _that_, heck, I think we can pull Ninjago out of this mess too."

Jacob nodded; that sounded good to him. No pun intended.

* * *

**Heh. Technically this is an invalid account; I found a little YouTube vid revealing that "take him to feed my serpent!" was a _lot_ less sinister than Cole made it out to be. He really was just taken to feed the serpent. You know. Like you feed your pet fish. ****Poor Cole. XD **

**Anyways, I guess this is it! So far I've got equal votes for and against the extra chapter, so unless anyone else has opinions in either direction . . . Well, we'll see. Just in case this really is it, thank you so much for reading, reviewing, etc! Hope you enjoyed this little ramble. ^_^**


	10. Epilogue: Who Ya Gonna Call?

**Okay, so you guys voted for the extra chapter, here we go! **

**Heh. It's convenient I've been making train puns lately . . .**

**'cos it's time to ride the Season 5 Hype Traaaaaaain! Whoo whooooooo! *starts up Thomas the Tank Engine theme song***

**You guys have some idea of the rumors about Season 5, right? If you don't, and you don't want spoilers, quick! Shield your eyes!**

**But the rest of you guys have heard the drill, right? Morro? Creepy ghost dude? Possesses Lloyd, turns him into evil green critter?**

**Wellllll. Well well. We can have fun with this . . . **

**But don't take this as any indication of what's to come, folks! I have no _clue_ what the season is going to be like, how the possession works, anything like that. I probably have the mechanics of it all wrong, actually. But hey! Puns! There are pun opportunities! I will tweak logic for pun opportunities.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of this hoopla. And considering how hyper I am right now, that's probably a good thing. **

* * *

"I mean, I can't say I'm the end-all _expert_," grumbled Jay, "but honestly, this set is just tacky. Anyone could tell that background is fake, and—"

"Shush, Jay," scolded Cole. "We were invited here for an interview, not a studio makeover show. It's not very polite to go knocking their design choices."

"I can't help it, okay? When you get into the TV business, you become part of the larger community of TV producers, part of the guild. We care about what we're doing. Seeing a sloppy job being done just stabs you right through here!" Jay thumped at his heart earnestly.

"I'd hate to think what happens when you watch old cartoons, then," said Kai drily. Jay shuddered.

Meanwhile a female newscaster, her hair swept into a precarious bun atop her head, strode onto the scene.

"Okay, gentlemen, thank you for coming! We're going live in one minute; where's Lloyd?"

"Uhhhh . . . not sure, ma'am," said Cole sheepishly.

"But we need him for the interview!"

"I know, sorry. Don't worry; he said he'd be coming, so he'll show up for sure. He must've gotten delayed somewhere."

"Oh boy," sighed the newscaster, sweeping a hand through her hair. "I hope it's not going to be a lengthy delay. I can interview all of you first, sure, but I'm not sure how long we can stall."

" 'ey!" called one of the cameramen. "You're goin' live in ten seconds!"

"Well, here we go," said the newscaster as the others hastily made themselves presentable. "Bear with me."

"Annnnnnnd you're live!"

The newscaster smiled at the camera and adjusted her mike.

"Good evening everybody! I'm Abigail Hawshorne, here today with Ninjago's most famous Elemental Ninja, fresh from Master Chen's tournament and a battle for the very future of Ninjago. But it seems something new is threatening the team now! Boys, care to explain?"

"Errr, well—" Kai blinked as the mike was unexpectedly thrust towards him.

"Our friend's a ghost now," offered Jay helpfully.

"Well, kinda," amended Cole. "Some dude called Morro possessed him."

"Oh?" Ms. Hawshorne waved the mike encouragingly at all of them. "I can imagine that must have been quite a change for all of you! How did Lloyd take becoming a ghost?"

"Well, he tried to pretend nothing was wrong at first," said Kai. "Actually he tried to hide it from us for a long time. But it was pretty easy to see right through him."

"Yeah," agreed Jay. "I could tell something was up the minute he walked through the door." He paused, eyeing the ceiling reflectively. "And that was a pretty thick door, too."

"We're gonna have to ask him for a demonstration," said Ms. Hawshorne, impressed. "Well then, what about you gentlemen? How do you feel about your teammate becoming a poltergeist?"

"Honestly I'm a little worried," said Zane frankly. "I am not sure what this is going to do to our team spirit."

"Ahh, he'll be fine," said Kai.

"You sure?" said Cole. "I mean, he seems like a ghost of his former self sometimes."

"That was then. He's fine now!"

"There were issues?" said Ms. Hawshorne, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, at first," admitted Kai. "I mean, it's not easy handling angry ghosts, you know? A lot of unnecessary drama going on for a while there. But we've reached a happy medium."

"I don't care what you say, I don't trust that medium," muttered Jay. "He's _too_ happy."

Kai was going to reply, but stopped at the sound of a distant crash.

"That would be Lloyd," said Cole knowingly.

Sure enough, seconds later Lloyd came skidding into the studio, breathless, and nearly overshot the one remaining empty chair. He was looking pretty different due to his possession; even greener than usual, for starters.

"Out chasing Pac-Man again, were we?" asked Cole resignedly. Lloyd waved one hand for patience, still trying to catch his breath.

"Hey guys," he panted. "Sorry, I'm late . . . "

* * *

**Get it? Get it? :D**

**No? . . . **

**:(**

**Annnnnnnnyway, that's all there is! Told you it would be ridiculous . . . Didja get all the puns? There are six. And again, I'm pretty sure that I have the guesses all wrong here. For starters, I doubt Lloyd is actually gonna become a full-out ghost.**

**. . . Would be kinda cool if he did though, wouldn't it?**

**Okies, now we're done here. Thanks again, folks; here's to Season 5!**


End file.
